Handling Money

One commentator described it
this way. He said, wealth is a trust. It’s
not an absolute property, not an instrument, not an end in
itself. It is to be used not for selfish enjoyment, but for
the well-being of ourselves and others. That doesn’t mean that
we can’t enjoy life. One of my exhortations to a young
friend of mine was essentially the message from Ecclesiastes
that This is the life that we’ve been given and we are supposed
to enjoy it. There’s nothing wrong with going
out to dinner with the wife of your youth and enjoying God’s
bounties that He’s poured out on you. But if that’s all your
life is wrapped up into, is enjoying, and in essence, what James calls
that ungodly hedonism. If that’s all it is, that’s wrong. Jesus would say that that’s wrong. He calls it unrighteous wealth,
the mammon of unrighteousness. He says that because wealth tends
to be a snare, as we talked about a moment ago. It tends to lead
people down that wish. You folks were around on Saturday
night. to hear me chuckle as I come across certain illustrations
or recollections from my life and kind of work through the
Babylon weather to share them. But I had a relative interesting
person. She was and she was one who had
a great influence upon me. And I thought of her immediately
when I landed on the title Handling Money. Because if there is any
one person who influenced my thought on handling money, it
was my grandmother. And this downward spiral, that
unprofitable path where there is no reward. Specifically, she
just had a whole Great number of curiosities in
the way that she dealt with money. She was distrustful of banks
and kept large sums of money squirreled away in and around
her house. And we always used to joke that
we couldn’t wait to get in there one day and look for all the
various hiding places. There’s probably still money
stashed away in various places. She was quite creative when it
came down to that. On her person, when she carried
money, she kept very little in her purse, but somehow managed
on her clothing to pin. Jesus wants us to be free from
that trap. wants us to be free from that
snare. And he issues forth this very pointed lesson that the
way that we handle wealth is going to be a proving ground
on whether we enjoy spiritual responsibilities. I believe this
way about giftedness. I do believe that every Christian,
when he comes to Christ, is given a gift package. But I also believe
that some of those gifts, depending on how faithful he is in the
small things, depending on how faithful he is in the exercise
of some of those giftedness, some of that giftedness, I believe
some of the small cloth envelope in a very conspicuous location. But when it came to those gifts
are never allowed to be developed. In essence, wither and wilt on
the vine. And isn’t that a frightening
thing to be given a spiritual gift of God that is never actually
touching money? This is where my grandmother
influenced me the greatest. My grandmother was convinced
that and she used the term so often used in Scripture, filthy
lucre, she drew that quite literally and it affected the way that
she even handled money. Most often, if she were able,
she would handle put to use for His glory because of our unfaithfulness
or our lack of faithfulness in other areas. That’s basically
what Jesus is saying. Earthly wealth is not only trivial
and unreal. It doesn’t belong to us. It’s
ours only as a loan and a trust. It can be withdrawn at a moment,”
said one. But it’s a proving ground. It’s
a proving ground for what you are going to do for eternity. Money with gloves. And she explained
the reason that It was like the germs were cumulative on the
money. I now know that not to be true.
Germs have a very short lifespan. Look at the passage again. The
riches are in stark contrast with the vain, deceitful, unrighteous
mammon. That’s on one hand. With the
honesty and integrity and the faithfulness and the benevolence
in the use of the world on physical things. But to her mind, anyone
who had ever touched that, any disease, goods, that’s on the
other hand. But you can’t get away from the
thought. I go back to this. You can’t get away from the thought
that it is a trust. It is a trust that is given to
you for a time. Even your giftedness is given
to you as a trease they had was resident on that quarter. And
so there was a time there, probably from 8 to 12 years of age for
me that, you know, somebody would reach out to hand me a quarter.
And I, you know, there was part of me that trusts. Your wealth,
your family, your possessions, your responsibilities, your privileges. They wouldn’t want to take it,
you know, and they probably thought, what an odd kid. Privileges,
your giftedness in Christ. It is all given to you as a trust.
And what you do with that is what you earn for eternity. One pastor said it this way,
everything that a man possesses on earth, talents, privileges,
money, belongs primarily to the Creator who lends it so liberally
in order that it may be a blessing to man himself and to his fellow
man, that it should be used to the honor of God. Accordingly,
if anyone is… But when I came to this passage,
that’s the little title that I landed on. Handling money.
It has, in essence, nothing to do with the lessons that my grandmother
taught me. Because when Jesus talked about
handling money, or when I characterize that, I’m not talking about the
physical touch of money. It’s what we do with it, how
we handle it, basically beginning in our hearts, not with our hands.
The passage really picks up where we left off last week in a difficult
passage that everybody acknowledged it to be last week. So I want
to go back and I want to pick up beginning in verse 1 of chapter
16 and flow into verse 10 so that you get the transition that
Jesus provides for us in this additional lesson. Verse 1. were Luke records. Now, he was
also saying to the disciples, there was a certain rich man
who had a steward and this steward was reported to him as squandering
his possessions. And he called him and said to
him, what is this I hear about you? Give account of your stewardship,
for you can no longer be steward. The steward said to himself,
what shall I do since my master is taking the stewardship away
from me? I’m not strong enough to dig. I’m ashamed to beg. I
know what I shall do. So that when I am removed from
the stewardship, they will receive me into their homes. And he summoned
each one of his master’s debtors and began saying to the first,
how much do you owe my master? And he said, 100 measures of
oil. And he said to him, take out your bill, sit down and quickly
write 50. Then he said to another, how
much do you owe? And he said, 100 measures of wheat. And he
said to him, take your bill and write 80. And his master praised
the unrighteous steward because he had acted shrewdly. For the
sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind
than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends
for yourselves by means of the mammon of unrighteousness, that
when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.”
Now, we looked at that difficult passage. And we acknowledged
last week that Christ is not encouraging dishonesty. He is not encouraging fraud at
all. He merely tells this story. It
is the Master Himself who praises the unrighteous steward. Christ
merely uses it as an illustration to say, look how shrewd the people
of the world are in comparison to Christians. We looked in that
passage at those three features of an eternally focused service. It is intense. And those about
us are intense about making money. It is investment minded. And
those who have their money are looking to make more money. And
it is intentional. They do everything they do for
a reason. What Jesus was asking In essence,
through this parable is, are we as intense about the business
of the kingdom as the world is about the business of money?
Are we as investment minded? Are we as intentional about the
things that we do with our money? And so this passage that we launch
in today, it is transitional. And Jesus, in essence, uses this
to counterbalance a misunderstanding of the passage He gave us just
last week. And with that, Jesus launches
into another related little lesson, beginning in verse
10, where He says, He who is faithful in a very little thing
is faithful also in much. And he who is unrighteous in
a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. Therefore, if you
have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who
will entrust the true riches to you? And if you have not been
faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you
that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters,
for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he
will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God
and wealth. There is no doubt in my mind
that that principle has some additional applications. He who
is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much.
You can take that to the business world. You can take that. Let’s
basically begin right in the home. If a young person is not
faithful in their chores, what makes us begin to think that
they’re faithful enough to babysit the entire rest of their siblings
when we go away? There’s no doubt there is a myriad
of applications to that principle, but there’s also no doubt in
my mind that the little thing that is in view in this passage
is money. It’s clear as a bell. He trailers
off of that passage of last week. Unless somebody get the idea
that, boy, we just got to be shrewd and use money and manipulate
money and manipulate people in the use of our money. Jesus wants
to stop that in its tracks. In essence, what he does is rebuke
what this unrighteous steward did Even while using him as a
lesson. Handling money. It’s a difficult
thing. And it isn’t so much the physical
impurities that are on money. It’s not the cleanest thing in
the world, no doubt. But it’s the spiritual impurities
that can be gained by money. It’s the spiritual taint that
we receive from money that is the real danger. Far more dangerous
than any germ that we pick up. What I identified this morning
is three principles related to the managing of wealth that if
not considered, leaves each individual soul in peril because everyone
will deal with money. There are passages that we come
to from time to time to relate more to one than another. Perhaps
there are even passages that relate to specific groups and
almost seem to exclude entirely others. I think of the passage
of widows. I think of some of the passages
relating to elders. But this passage touches every
person. Every person will in time, even
beginning at a very young age, begin to interact with money
and the use of wealth. What I identified was three principles
related to the managing of wealth. First of all, money handling
is telling. It’s telling. And what it tells
is the condition of the heart. It’s telling about your character. It’s telling about what you establish
in your life as priorities. It’s telling in how you are going
to handle other responsibilities, greater responsibilities. In
essence, Jesus says money is a very small thing. It’s a little
thing. It’s a picayune thing. Go back
to verse 10. He who is faithful in a very
little thing, This is a minute thing compared to all of the
rest of life’s responsibilities. When you begin to take on eternal
or spiritual responsibilities, the exercise of giftedness, the
handling of money becomes a very telling test on how you will
handle those additional responsibilities. He who is faithful in a very
little thing is faithful also in much. And he who is unrighteous
in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.” That word faithfulness, we could spend months just on
that word alone, chasing it through the Scriptures. It means a trustworthiness, a loyalty that issues forth in
action It is taking God at His Word and doing everything in
our power to obey Him in those things. This passage is one of
Christ’s most profound sayings. And as I said a moment ago, you
can see this principle issued forth in the business life. Yesterday,
Emily and I had the opportunity to take a walk and to visit the
horses up near this little pasture. We came across a gal that was
running the place called a wrangler. And she looked down at Emily
and asked Emily, do you want to be a wrangler when you grow
up? And Emily said, no, I want to own the ranch. Wrangler tipped her hat back.
And you know, really, that’s where most of us start. We don’t
want to go in and put in We want to start at the top. That’s what
we’d really like. We’d like to skip point A to Y and go right
to Z. It’s not how it works. Business world sees it as such. You start at one point and the
man who can be trusted in a very small thing, he’s going to be
the one that’s going to be the one that’s going to be the one that’s going to
be the one that’s going to be the one that’s going to be the
one that’s going to be the one that’s going to be the one that’s
going to be the one that’s going to be the one that’s going to
be the one that’s going to be the one that’s going to be the one that’s
going to be the one that’s going to be the one that’s going to
be the one that’s going to be the one that’s going to be the one that’s going to be the one
that’s going to be the one that’s going to be the one that’s going
to be the one that’s going to be the ends up taking additional
responsibilities? Because conversely, the same
thing is true. If you find a man to be unfaithful or a woman,
if you find them to be unfaithful in a little thing, what makes
you think that they will be any more faithful in a greater responsibility? Jesus says it doesn’t happen
that way. By axiom, typically, if you see unfaithfulness in
one realm, you will see it in time in another. A man’s conduct
in those things is a test of what he’s going to do in greater
responsibility. If he’s unfaithful or untrustworthy
in connection with worldly goods, and that’s what Jesus says, if
he can’t even handle a little thing like money, If money makes
him do sinful things, if he becomes covetous, if he becomes greedy
over money, if he becomes a spendthrift and finds himself in debt over
money, what makes you think that we can entrust to such a man
greater responsibility? You go to the character qualities
of an elder. And several of those things deal
directly with the managing of finances. God says, if a man
can’t run his own household, what makes you think that he
can run the church? The context here clearly shows
that what is meant by least is what we call wealth or money. To be faithful in that is to
acknowledge that we have it as stewards of God. It isn’t our
money, and that’s probably one of the first principles that
we need to drum into our heads. It isn’t ours. We’ve been given
a trust. We’ll come back to that thought
in a moment. But I love the way he places this. It’s least the
smallest little tiny infinitesimal part of the kingdom. It’s a great
test. We have here. It’s a general
principle capable of application, a number of spheres, but here
it is directly related to the little thing and the great riches
that are due to the faithful saint. That’s in essence what
is held in balance in this passage. If you are faithful in a little
thing, you’ll be faithful in much. It’s sad that money is
often seen as a roadblock to those in the ministry. It is
often seen as the very thing where men show themselves to
be unfaithful. Their heart is revealed in it.
Patrick Fairbairn, the Puritan, said it this way. He said, there
have never been wanting those who suppose godliness to be gain. Consider it as a lucrative concern
and profess it only so far as they find it serviceable to their
own worldly interests. In other words, what he says
is they’ve never been lacking those in the ministry that are
only in it for the money. We may certainly infer it to
have been carried on altogether apart from the constituted order
and worship of the church privately by humoring the capricious tastes
and unregulated fancies of certain individuals. What he says in
difficult and flowery language is watch a man’s life and how
he lives and know where his heart is. There are those They can’t be trusted with greater
responsibility because they haven’t been faithful with the responsibility
they’ve been given. Money is a snare. It is a potentially
a great snare. First Timothy six, nine says
it this way. Those who want to get rich fall
into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires
which plunge men into ruin and destruction. It’s a very dangerous
thing. One person characterized it this
way. Such persons get into a perilous and what usually becomes a downward
and ruinous course. First, they fall into temptation
and not only temptation, but a snare. Their hastening to be
rich involves them in entanglements to which they find impossible
to work their way through with good conscience. They get into
a bad investment that leads to impropriety. The next thing you
know, they’re stealing. It goes on and on and on. It’s
a regular feature, sadly, in the church in our day and age.
Those can’t be trusted with greater responsibilities who have been
unfaithful with small responsibilities. A man’s character doesn’t depend
on all of the quantity of goods entrusted to him, but ultimately
on the heart And that’s why I believe Jesus says here that it is a
very telling thing to watch the way people manage their money. It says a great deal about them.
It proves the disposition of his heart. It proves whenever
he is unfaithful or unjust in the small things of life, that
basically, he’s false. He’s a phony. He’s a sham. And
he’s going to be unfaithful in the greater things of life. One said it this way. It is clear
from these words that Jesus did not approve of or even excuse
dishonesty or unfaithfulness in the case of the unjust steward. If a person can be trusted in
handling a matter of small importance, he can be entrusted with important
matters. Everything depends on the quality
of the person’s invisible being. Call it his soul or whatever
you wish. That soul is not divided. There are many snares. There
are many potential pitfalls that money can bring us into. Not
just the ones I’ve mentioned, but then you begin to think of
gambling. You think of bad investments and dishonesty and fraud and
bribery and theft. Those little things, the little
thing called money. If a man is unfaithful here,
he is going to be. You can take it to the bank if
you pardon the pun. He’s going to be unfaithful in
the greater things. There’s a second principle in
handling money, handling wealth. Money handling is not only telling,
it is proving. It is a proving ground. Go back
to the passage, if you would, and look there at verse 11. Where here Jesus says, and he
begins to apply the principle of the previous verse, therefore,
if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth,
who will give you or who will entrust the true riches to you? And if you have not been faithful
in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which
is your own? You get an image. From backing
away and looking at this passage, when you see words like entrust.
When you see words like faithful in the use of that which is another’s,
we are constantly and immediately reminded here that it is not
our money. All of the things that we think
we possess are not ours. Not ultimately. In essence, what you have in
this little passage is the definition or a clarification on that little
term so often used in some of the older translations, unrighteous
mammon. It’s the opposite of the true
divine riches, as we saw a moment ago, the riches of God’s favor.
The basic lesson of this verse is that everything that we possess
on our earth, that we think is our own. It’s
entrusted to us for a temporary use. We are as stewards of it,
just like that unjust steward. We keep the books, we manage
the money, but it’s not our wealth. Not ultimately. And ultimately,
the way that we manage it is either rewarded or punished. unfaithful in connection with
these borrowed goods.” What a great way to consider that next time. Borrowed goods. How can he expect
to receive God’s eternal riches? The spiritual gifts given for
time and eternity to the redeemed as their own. Our things are
not our things. It just happens to be in our
account. As my wife and I were reminded
even this past week, it’s not our things. And if we’re not trustworthy
with these, I mean, if we begin to take this tight fisted approach
to the things that are given to us as a mere trust, where
is our faith? We are no better than Nabal.
Remember Nabal? He said it this way in rebuke
of David, who merely needed some groceries for the road. And Abel
said, shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that
I have slaughtered for my shears and give it to men whose origin
I do not know? You know we do the same thing.
You know that we do the same thing. The rich fool did it. Remember the parable? The parable
of the rich fool. The land of rich man was very
productive and began reasoning to himself. Never your best counsel. saying, what shall I do since
I have no place to store my crops? Then he said, this is what I
will do. I will tear down my barns. I will build larger ones.
And there I will store all my grain and my goods. It rebukes
us, doesn’t it? It rebukes us because those words
echo in our own hearts and minds. We begin to think of those things
as being our own. We begin to think that we really
did earn them. And they are ours by divine right. There’s a third principle related
to the managing of wealth that, if not carefully attended to
by the Christian, will leave us squandering our eternal opportunities
And if it is mishandled by the non-Christian will leave us empty
handed in eternity. Money handling is not only telling
and proving thirdly, and finally, this morning, it is dividing.
It is dividing. Look at verse 13, no servant
can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one
and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise
the other.” This verse, you may recognize it as a parallel, a
direct parallel of Matthew 6.24. And in that great passage of
Matthew 6, which is primarily about the handling of money,
you get this unfolding of Jesus’ almost consummate treatment.
on the treatment of money. He rebukes our worry and our
concern about day to day provisions, because firstly, he says in verses
19 and following, there are more important things to think about.
We’re not supposed to be dwelling in this world. We’re supposed
to be thinking otherworldly and heavenly. Secondly, we’re not
servants or we’re servants of God, not money. We’ll come back
to that one in a moment. Thirdly, he says, things are
not what life is about. Do not be anxious for your life,
your 401k, your bank account is not what life is all about. Fourthly, he says, anxiety, worry
is indicative of those who do not know or trust God. And then
finally, he says, our sovereign provider already knows your needs.
But back to the main thought, the whole chapter there is about
the handling of money. And distilled down in this one
verse, in parallel here in the Gospel of Luke, he takes Matthew
6, 24. No one can serve two masters.
No one. For either he will hate the one
and love the other, Or he will be devoted to one and despise
the other. You cannot serve God in wealth. It is dividing. It’s
interesting here, the word rendered serve. It literally signifies to be
the slave of. And it speaks of a relationship
there that necessarily implies exclusive ownership. It demands exclusive service.
It wants all of you and it wants nobody else to have any of you.
That’s the way money thinks. It’s one of those necessary evils.
We have to interact with it and we have to hold it loosely and
we have to be careful of every aspect of our heart. In Matthew’s Gospel, so often
that word there is translated mammon. It signifies, just as
it does here, wealth, riches. But it’s interesting that it
is personified. It is given the status of being
as if it is a person or better, a God with a small g. That’s
exactly what Jesus had in mind. Because people treat it as a
God with a capital G. People treat it as if it is their
God. One Puritan characterized it
this way. He said, mammon is here personified as the rival
of God. When was the last time you considered
money in those terms? It is the rival of God. We have
to deal with it. We’ve got to handle it every
day. We’ll probably spend some of it before the day is out.
But it is the rival of God and will do your soul ill if you
don’t handle it carefully. Mammon is personified here as
the rival of God and all experience shows that he who has allowed
himself to become enslaved can serve no one else. Least of all,
can he devote himself in the service of him who claims exclusive
service? But neither here nor elsewhere
is a possession of wealth condemned. It is the being enslaved to riches
that is fatal, and to possess great riches without being enslaved
is not easy.” No wonder Paul said, don’t labor to become rich.
Don’t worry yourself. Don’t try to become rich. It’s
a dangerous proposition. God requires a whole heart. God wants an undivided heart. Listen to the strong language
that Scripture uses with regards to a divided heart over money. James four, verse four, you adulterous
Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward
God? I mean, is there a stronger passage
in all of Scripture? Therefore, whoever wishes to
be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. And
that’s exactly what he’s talking about is that worldliness, that
lust for things that makes one out to be an adulterous toward
God. Colossians 3.5 Therefore, consider
the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity,
passion, evil desire and greed, which amounts to idolatry.” Did
you ever consider that? When you have and you only want
more and you begin to fixate on that only a little bit more,
that is idolatry. Surprising, isn’t it? One pastor said it this way.
The Israelites of Elijah’s time did not avowedly renounce Jehovah. And then when we studied the
kings, they never said, forget it. We don’t believe in the true
God of Israel anymore. God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
We don’t believe in him anymore. We’re going to go worship Baal.
They never believed that. They just wanted to have both
together to syncretize the two things and to worship them both. And that’s what so many Christians
want. That’s what so many Christians try to do. They try to have it
all. They try to have a little bit of this and a little bit
of that and a little bit of religion and a little bit of money. We’ll
all be happy. One pastor rebuked it in these
terms, he said, men are proverbially prone to be puffed up by the
acquisition of riches and even to fix their hope and happiness
on them. The temptation is to be met by
reminding them that wealth is entirely due to the bountifulness
of God and that at best it is only for the brief course of
earthly life that it can be held, that its tenure is very precarious. He goes on and says, our houses
are built. Our vineyards are planted and
around the base of a volcano. There they may be flourishing
and fair today, and tomorrow ashes may be all that remains.
Open your hands wide then where they contain any blessings, for
that which you give can never be deprived.” In other words,
he says, hold it loosely. Hold it loosely. We’re not to
be idolaters. We’re not to be greedy. We’re
not to be those that are characterized by a miserly heart and a heart
that is only fixated and hopeful on money itself. We’re not to serve mammon. It’s
an interesting thought that men, even worldly men, have seized
upon Christ’s words as being true. Some of the greatest philosophers
the world has ever known, Seneca, Seneca said it this way. Wealth
is the slave of a wise man and the master of a fool. Same thought. Plato. To prize wealth and at the same
time, largely acquire wisdom is impossible, said the wise
man. For a man necessarily disregards
the one or the other would have been much easier for these guys
instead of doing all their writing just to read the scriptures. In order to be able to love and
serve God truly, we have to be free from the slave or enslavement
to money. And we do it in countless ways
by acting inappropriately about it, by worrying about it, by
making shady deals, by doing things in essence that elevate
money to the status of Lord. We will do anything. J.C. Riles said in closing, there
are thousands in our churches who are uncomfortable. They are
ill at ease and dissatisfied with themselves, and they hardly
know why. The reason is revealed here, they’re trying to keep
up with both sides. They are endeavoring to please
God and please man, to serve Christ and to serve the world
at the same time, to be friends of the world and friends of God
at the same time. Their consciences are so far
enlightened that they feel they must have some religion. But
their affections are so chained down to earthly things that they
can never come up to the mark of being true Christians. Hence,
they live in a state of constant discomfort. They are spiritual
enough to be happy in the world. Pardon me. They are just spiritual
enough to be unhappy in the world, and they have too much of the
world in their hearts to be happy in the church. Their attempt is to work for
two different masters. And if we do that, we are sure
to give satisfaction to neither. It is just the same with our
souls. We cannot serve Christ and the world at the same time. Examine your hearts. How are
you handling your money? What does it tell about your
own heart? What is it proving? In which direction are you headed
in the division that it surely will create? Let’s examine our
hearts. Our gracious God, Your words
are true. Our hearts, by Your Spirit, know
it to be so. That He who is faithful in a
very little thing will be faithful in much. Lord, how could we possibly
expect to have greater spiritual responsibilities and blessings if we’re unfaithful in these
little things. Lord, we pray, spare us from going over to the
side of the god Mammon. Draw us back, we pray, to a faithful
treatment, a faithful handling of earthly wealth. Be glorified
in it, we pray, in Jesus’ name, Amen.